An unusual concept derived from a mundane activity — that is how one could describe architecture graduate Ruann van der Westhuizen’s plans for a bathhouse to be built at the busy public-transport interchange precinct in Marabastad, Pretoria.
This week, to the delight of all in the department of architecture at the University of Pretoria, it was announced that Van der Westhuizen, an alumnus, had been named one of eight winners of the prestigious Hunter Douglas Award at Archiprix International 2011.
The accolade rewards the work of the world’s best graduates in architecture, urban design and landscape architecture.
Van der Westhuizen’s design was submitted to the university as part of his degree requirements. In surprisingly simple, non-academic terms, it describes the bathhouse’s rich and established history — one that dates back many centuries and is as common to the cultures of Turkey, Japan and Russia as it was to the ancient Romans.
The private spas of today provide services to a limited range of paying clients, excluding those who cannot afford them. In contrast, Van der Westhuizen tells us, the public bathhouse provides ‘a necessary service to an area that does not have basic ablution facilities”.
Van der Westhuizen also cites other academics who have envisioned the bathhouse as a place that could give rise to future commercial activity: ‘The bathhouse includes ablution facilities, accommodation and opportunity for formal and informal trade.”
The dissertation is graphically impressive and Van der Westhuizen illustrates his concept with photographs of local public toilets in poor condition, which he juxtaposes with images of people from various cultures in the act of public bathing.
The Archiprix Foundation, a network of prominent young architects, organises the competition biannually. For this year’s challenge, 1?400 universities worldwide were invited to submit their best final-year projects.
More than 300 projects from 70 countries were received and 24 finalists were announced in October. Van der Westhuizen’s project was also nominated as one of the participants’ favourites.
Leading up to the awards ceremony, held on June 9 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the finalists participated in workshops and an exhibition hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
According to the jury: ‘The winning projects … are all very powerful projects and go beyond style. What they have in common is poetics.”